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"He enjoyed society in a small select circle; his talents for conversation were always remarkable; he seldom rose early, but accomplished more in a few hours' study than ordinary minds do in many days. He never was in a hurry, and always had leisure to give to his friends, to poetry, romance, and the publications of the day he read indiscriminately almost every new book he could procure. On a friend entreating him to be more select in his choice, he replied, 'I have never yet read a book, or conversed with a companion, without gaining information, instruction, or amusement.' He was alternately very active, or, apparently, very indolent; and was subject to occasional fits of absence. He had a quick perception of the beauties of nature, and delighted in exploring the wild glens of his native land, and tracing to their source the mountain torrents. Though modest and unpretending, yet, like other great men, he was conscious of his own high talents and superior attainments, and proudly looked forward to their raising him to future fame and honour."

Such, with the exception of a short concluding portion relative to Mr. Watt's married life, which will hereafter be introduced in its proper place, is the whole of Mrs. Campbell's succinct, yet comprehensive narrative. We hope that "the reverence of kindred" does not unduly influence our judgment, when we venture to express a belief that it will always occupy an honourable place among the annals of the childhood and youth of great men. It is not often, indeed, that so forcible a sketch has been drawn of the early character of one afterwards so highly distinguished, by any artist favoured with such frequent opportunities of close observation of her subject, and at the same time, let us add, with so happy a command of her pencil. We feel assured that the portrait she has given us of James Watt in his youth, distinct as are its features, and fresh and lively as are its tints, is neither painted in 'too glowing colours, nor in any way too highly varnished; and that by all who attentively consider it, it will be admitted to bear on its countenance the stamp of a self-evident fidelity.

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SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS OF JAMES WATT-ANECDOTES OF HIS BOYISH HABITS AND PASTIMES-PORTRAITS OF NAPIER AND NEWTON-HIS CALL TO BE A MECHANICAL PHILOSOPHER-HIS VISIT TO GLASGOW-ACQUAINTANCE WITH PROFESSORS OF THE UNIVERSITY—JOURNEY TO LONDON-PRACTICE OF MATHEMATICAL-INSTRUMENT-MAKING-RETURN TO SCOTLAND.

DURING the period to which Mrs. Campbell's memoranda chiefly apply, his father s house in Greenock was the head-quarters of young Watt, from which he frequently made such excursions as she has described, to the homes of other kind relations and friends, either during his vacations, or when health rendered change of air and relaxation advisable. The commercial school of a Mr. McAdam he attended, though, as it is said, not very punctually, nor perhaps over diligently; a more than respectable proficiency in Latin, and some knowledge of the elements of Greek, he attained under the tuition of a learned and virtuous person of the name of Robert Arrol, master of the grammar-school of Greenock; mathematics he studied with far greater zest, and with proportionate success, under one John Marr, whose designation is given, in the attestation of some deeds of that date, as "mathematician in Greenock."

During the course of early education which he was thus receiving, the boy is said to have been often known to stand angling from a jetty which ran out into the sea, at the back of his father's house on the shore at Greenock; and which thus offered a tempting opportunity for exercise of the gentle, silent, and solitary art. Such pastime, so invitingly presented to his hours of leisure, he must have been either more or less than a

boy altogether to have slighted; and we should have been very willing to credit, upon any tolerably circumstantial authority, the further statement that the same recreation was "often resorted to by him even in after-days, when confinement or over-application to study had rendered a slight or temporary relaxation necessary to his constitution," &c.* But we have no other ground than the general statement above cited, for being able to do so; and there is only too much reason to think that, during by far the greater part of his long and laborious life, Mr. Watt had neither the leisure, nor often the opportunity, nor latterly perhaps the inclination, to amuse himself with that peaceful recreation, to many minds so full of delight, so calmly contemplative, and healthfully active.

However that may have been, there were pursuits which young Watt preferred even to the sports usually most popular with youths of his years. The ill health which at first seemed likely to form an obstacle to his rapid advancement in learning, seems to have had in his case, as in that of many others, only the effect of forming habits of persevering study, and of a disregard of temptations to the indolent loss or frivolous waste of time and thought. “I even think it an advantage to me, and am truly thankful for it,” says Dr. Priestley, "that my health received the check that it did when I was young; since a muscular habit from high health, and strong spirits, are not, I think, in general accompanied with that sensibility of mind which is both favourable to piety and to "speculative pursuits." And to the successful cares of James Watt's homely tuition may in a great part be traced not only his habitual industry, and practice of many other humble virtues, but also that neatness in drawing, handwriting, and other manual occupations, together with skill in the computation of numbers, which he was wont to reckon among his favourite accomplishments; as well as that strong love of order which presided over

* Memorials of Watt, p. 136.

* Memoirs of Dr. Priestley, by himself, p. 103, ed. 1806.

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HIS BOYISH PASTIMES.

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,every arrangement, and bestowed on his conversation and thoughts, an extraordinary degree, all the excellences of a lucid method. In witnessing his father's mode of conducting his business, and assisting him in several of its details, he appears to have acquired both good habits of commercial and manufacturing diligence, and many useful rudiments of practical mechanics. The carpenter's benches and tools which that business kept in full occupation, were fraught with instruction to a mind that was already decidedly bending itself towards the study of the mechanical arts; and the frequent completion or restoration of the rigging, fittings, and furniture of a ship,-the sails and ropes, the blocks and tackle, the pumps and capstans, the rudder and compasses, involved the application of many ingenious resources of a rude sort of natural philosophy, which he was not slow to apprehend and treasure up. He soon learned to construct, with his own hands, several of the articles required in the way of his father's trade, thus gaining a ready familiarity in working with the different kinds of metal, wood, and other materials, and a service-. able knowledge of their comparative qualities. He had a small forge set up for his own use; was fond of repairing and making all sorts of instruments; and did not disdain to form out of a large silver coin, and present to a friend, as a trophy of his early skill as a metal-smith, the Regium Donum of a silver punch-ladle.

His father made and erected, for the use of "the Virginia tobacco ships," the first crane ever seen or employed at Greenock; and of that, as of many other useful or curious machines-(among their number was a barrel organ),—small working models were neatly prepared by the young artificer. Even in his extreme old age there were not wanting occasional recollections of the minor, but secret, mysteries of such handicraft, in which he had been initiated when working, "in his shirt-sleeves," in the carpenter's shop:-as when, in his eightieth year, he instructed a certain great bookseller to have his boxes for books planed on the inside; or wrote to Sir Henry Raeburn (2d March, 1816), "I beg to advise your packer always to rub his wood-screws on some candle-grease

before he screws them in: it will tend much to his own ease as well as to that of him who unscrews them.”

A familiarity with the use and principles of construction of the telescopes, quadrants, and other optical instruments of which his father kept a stock for the supply of ships, was also early acquired by the boy, who always manifested a strong inclination to observe the problems of the physical world around him, and to reflect on their causes. "The prosecution of his favourite geometry," says Mr. Williamson, in introducing another of those interesting local anecdotes which give its peculiar value to his work, "now occupied habitually his thoughts and time; and it is not surprising that astronomy should have become with him a fascinating study. In the repositories of his father were to be found abundance of optical instruments of various kinds, calculated to render his observations of the heavenly bodies both accurate and enlarged. Of these the young astronomer sedulously availed himself. To the south of the town, and on the rising ground behind the church, at no great distance from his father's house, was a clump of trees of considerable extent, composed of stately elms and venerable beeches, part of what were, in former days, the retired and beautiful pleasure-grounds of the Old Mansionhouse of Greenock. Here the young recluse found a genial retreat. To this spot he was wont to retire at night as well as by day; and, like another Ferguson, the astronomical herd-boy of Scotland, was known to spend hours lying upon his back, to watch through the trees the wondrous movements of the stars."*

A circumstance which, whether we regard it as merely a curious coincidence, or as having perhaps in some degree exercised a prophetic direction over the future destiny of young Watt, must be considered as certainly remarkable, is, that among the few articles of household decoration of which the humble mansion of Thomas Watt and his sons could boast, were portraits of John Napier, the celebrated inventor of logarithms, and of Sir Isaac Newton.

* Memorials of Watt, pp. 137 and 138.

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